se against you that apparently they
hadn't even bothered to make the usual inquiries. If they had taken
the trouble to communicate with St. Petersburg, they could have found
out all about Mr. Marks without much difficulty. The authorities there
have a wonderfully complete system of remembering their old friends."

"But three years afterwards--" I began.

"It makes very little difference, especially as just at present we
are on excellent terms with the Russian Secret Service. They took the
matter up for me, and last night I got the full particulars I wanted
about the man who had given away McMurtrie and his friends in St.
Petersburg. There can be no question that he and Marks were the same
person."

I took a long--a very long breath.

"There remains," I said, "the Home Office."

"I don't think you need be seriously worried about the Home Office,"
returned Latimer serenely. "By this time they have a full statement of
the case--except, of course, for my direct evidence that I heard the
doctor actually bragging of his achievement. I had a long interview
with Casement before I left London this morning, and he said he would
go round directly after breakfast. He evidently arrived just too late
to prevent the order for your arrest."

I nodded. "Sonia must have gone to the police last night," I said; and
then in a few words I told him of the telegram I had received from
Gertie 'Uggins, and how it had just enabled me to get away.

"I don't know," I finished, "how much my double escape complicates
matters. However unjust my sentence was, there's no denying I've
committed at least three felonies since. I've broken prison, plugged a
warder in the jaw, and shoved an oar into a policeman's tummy. Do you
think there's any possible chance of the Home Secretary being able to
overlook such enormities?"

Latimer laughed easily. "My dear Lyndon," he said, "in return for what
you've done for us, you could decimate the police force if you wanted
to." Then, speaking more seriously, he added: "I tell you frankly,
there's every chance of a huge European war in the near future, and
you can see the different position we should be in if the Germans had
got hold of this new powder of yours. Apart from that, the Government
owe you every possible sort of reparation for the shameful way you've
been treated. If there's any 'overlooking' to be done, it will be on
your side, not on theirs."

We were entering the dreary main street of Queenborou